Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook
I’m a fan of the GoingStick and perhaps you are too, since any technology that gives an objective insight into the state of the going must be of interest to any punter. Well, there may be developments afoot because I can exclusively reveal that racing’s powerful are going to make a study of The Stick to see if they can do a bit better for punters and indeed trainers who want to know what the ground is like.
The British Horseracing Authority tells me: “A cross-industry working party has been established to review the use of the GoingStick and to determine whether there are any practical steps that can be taken to increase its accuracy, improve the manner in which it is used by racecourses and to make its data more relevant and user-friendly.”
I was a tad worried by the news, at first, jumping to the (wrong) conclusion that this might be the beginning of a cost-saving exercise that would conclude The Stick wasn’t worth the candle. After all, each GoingStick costs almost £4,000 and, every time you want readings from your racecourse, a member of staff has to spend 90 minutes gathering the data.
Happily, the signs are all the other way, that this is indeed about making better use of The Stick. Indeed, TurfTrax, who make the GoingSticks, tell me they asked for this working party last year and are looking forward “to taking part in discussions about how the racing industry can benefit from advances in technology”.
Feedback from racecourse officials suggests there is plenty of faith in GoingStick measurements at free-draining tracks like Goodwood, Epsom and Kempton. Reservations are more likely to be held by those working at tracks with more complicated soil structures.
Chris Stickels (Ascot) and Kirkland Tellwright (Haydock) are the clerks of the course appointed to this working party, due to meet for the first time on Monday. Stickels is broadly positive about the GoingStick, while Tellwright has more reservations. Both men see the benefit of having an objective measurement of ground conditions if it can be made to work and both hope to see an advance in the next generation of GoingStick.
From a punters’ perspective, what I really want to see is consistent taking and reporting of readings from tracks around the country. I’m aware of six tracks which have failed to report a GoingStick reading for at least one raceday since Christmas, while two others have produced readings from one or two days before the raceday. We can’t hope to put the data to good use if we don’t have the data.
Even more annoying, in my book, are the tracks that don’t produce a GoingStick reading on the day before a fixture, when tipsters and punters are working away at a card and connections are trying to decide whether they want to run. It’s at that time that insights into ground conditions are most valuable. Some tracks take their responsibilities very seriously, others seem to neglect them. British racing could use a standardised approach in this and other areas.
And so to today’s racing. I’m grateful to a Racing Post feature today for pointing out that Nick Williams has a fine record with hurdlers running in handicaps for the first time because it just so happens that I fancy two of his Kempton runners today who fit that profile, albeit the Post stats relate to more valuable races than are taking place this afternoon.
Grand Coureur (1.40) is a half-brother to a Listed winner in France and showed significant improvement in his latest novice hurdle to be second at Bangor after setting the pace. He has to step up again on that form in order to win this but I’m sure that he can, especially with a return to more conservative tactics.
While he’s on offer at 7-1, Williams’s One Of Us (3.45) has been backed from 15-2 down to 9-2 for a later handicap hurdle. A useful sort in bumpers, he put up two fair efforts over hurdles in the autumn, about six weeks before Williams really hit some kind of form. There’s plenty more to come now that the horse steps up in distance from a fair opening mark. He’s out of a half-sister to the Grand National winner Rule The World and three miles is likely to be his trip in time.
Bangor’s card has survived the elements and closes with a hot-looking hunter chase. I’ll take a chance on Poole Master (5.00) at 15-2, he having needed the run when well beaten by Grand Vision at Warwick, where he led to two out. Though he lost his way in his last season with David Pipe, he was a Grand Sefton winner off 142, so there is plenty of ability in there if Chris Honour has been able to rekindle same. Honour was his regular jockey six years ago when the horse was just starting out.
Bangor
1.50 Over To Sam 2.20 Sainte Ladylime 2.50 Dashing Oscar 3.20 Lord Heathfield 3.55 Hollywood All Star 4.25 Hands Of Stone 5.00 Poole Master (nb)
Kempton
1.40 Grand Coureur 2.10 Ballymountain Boy 2.40 Captain Buck’s 3.10 Brandon Hill 3.45 One Of Us (nap) 4.15 Politologue 4.50 Whatswrongwithyou
Newcastle
5.45 A Boy Named Sue 6.15 Mia Wallace 6.45 Major Jumbo 7.15 Hot Natured 7.45 Out Of Order 8.15 Foresight
Southwell
1.30 Stonecoldsoba 2.00 Trenchard 2.30 Dark Forest 3.00 Lady Nayef 3.35 Piazon 4.05 Start Seven 4.40 Luv U Always
